Philip Hensher

The peculiarities of a realist

Fine just the way it is: Wyoming stories by Annie Proulx<br /> <br type="_moz" />

issue 30 August 2008

Fine just the way it is: Wyoming stories by Annie Proulx

The realism of Annie Proulx’s fiction is an extraordinary phenomenon. Realism in a novel has never been the same thing as plausibility, and her novels and short stories are full of bizarre and unforeseen events. The violent extremity of a great deal of her narratives sometimes verges on the territory of urban myth rather than anything recognizable as everyday life, and she enjoys characters considerably beyond the ordinary territory of the grotesque.

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